Project Citizen

Welcome to Project Citizen

We the People: Project Citizen is a curricular program for middle school students that promotes competent and responsible participation in local and state government. The program helps participants learn how to monitor and influence public policy. In the process, they develop support for democratic values and principles, tolerance, and feelings of political efficacy.

Project Citizen is a five step process that relies on effort and teamwork. Each class works cooperatively to identify a public policy problem in their community. They then research the problem, evaluate alternative solutions, develop their own solution in the form of a public policy, and create a political action plan to enlist local or state authorities to adopt their proposed policy. As a class we will develop and present our project in a public hearing showcase before a panel of civic-minded community members

In addition, students learn how to critically examine political cartoons, evaluate sources, and other research tools and skills necessary as they advance through school.

The project does not begin until January. The unit takes approximately 10-12 weeks to complete. The majority of the unit takes place online using iPads. The final projects are all technology based trying to teach you 21st century presentation skills. An important part of the project is choosing a local problem we as a 7th grade can try to help fix.

Watch the video from the National Project Citizen showcase

There are several keys to making a good Project Citizen Project - hard work, research, working as a group, dedication...

But one often overlooked aspect of the project is picking a good topic - the topic is voted upon by the 7th grade in December - you must find a local topic that Elm Place students can impact and change. The only way to do this is to start thinking and looking for ideas now - so the rest of the period you will have to search and brainstorm possible ideas - this is not an easy job and often will lead to a dead end but Mr. Hull is NOT helping nor choosing a topic - the 7th grade students are - This is not an easy task that will take 5 minutes - this is a confusing difficult task. Later in November we will begin to learn about public policy and other requirements that will bring clarity to Project Citizen - but for today we are in the haze of uncertainty.

Old Links

Project Citizen Final Projects 2009 2010

Old Project Citizen Wiki: http://2011projectcitizen.pbworks.com/w/page/33979263/FrontPage